For three decades, Tom Kowalski knew where he would be working each day. And for each one of those days, the media entity for which he covered the Detroit Lions didn't have to worry. A demanding beat would be covered that day, and covered well. No active print journalist was more identified with the Lions than Tom, and he reveled in the daily competition for stories and the perpetual assignment to be first.

He wrote what he meant and meant what he wrote. Along the way, he became a multimedia personality, popular on a statewide radio show where he went by the nickname "Killer," and the most-clicked writer on the MLive website, in part because the Lions are such a disproportionately popular topic, and in large part because Tom made the topic disproportionately popular with his insight.

Few people in this business are equal parts writer and reporter. Inevitably, you are better at one or the other. Tom was an extraordinary reporter. His strength was finding a story, telling it succinctly, and putting it in broader context. When it came to telling readers what was important about the Lions, and why, no one did it better, and his pointed style fit an evolving industry wonderfully.

Tom didn't lose. He had old-school reporter's instincts, honed in an era when he competed against Curt Sylvester of the Detroit Free Press and Mike O'Hara of The Detroit News, but adapted quickly to the new-media world and became a favorite of Internet readers.

Tom came along at a unique time. The newspaper industry was in its heyday when he broke into the business, and by mid-career, he was part of an industry transitioning toward the future. The National Football League was big when Tom covered his first Super Bowl in 1982, but nothing like it has grown to become.

He covered an evolving business, for an evolving business, with exceptional results. He engaged readers with his writing, his popular Internet chats on the Lions, and his radio appearances. Throughout it all, he became synonymous with the Detroit Lions and the NFL.

The Lions endured some pretty rugged years while Tom covered them. None of that ever mattered to him. He was engrossed in the day-to-day grind of the franchise's ever-churning machinations. The Lions could make a move involving a backup long-snapper on the 53-man roster and Tom would find a way to twist it into something that mattered for some seemingly unrelated reason.

Professional reporters couldn't care less whether the teams and individuals they cover win or lose any particular game or event. They cover winners and losers every day. Tom Kowalski, ever the professional, dealt with them all equally.

He was gruff and hard-charging and suspicious and embraced the eight-day work week -- everything a newspaper could want in its NFL beat writer.

Tom left us on the eve of another NFL season. The Lions, it seems, are about to turn the corner after a lot of average years. Tom obviously would have wanted to be here for it. He would have wanted to see what the Lions could become, just like we would have liked to see Tom cover a successful team.

But it wouldn't have changed him. He was a veteran reporter with extraordinary instincts who would have done the job the same way, regardless.